Brattlecast: A Firsthand Look at Secondhand Books

Dec 03 2024 100 ep. 15 mins 114
Brattlecast: A Firsthand Look at Secondhand Books Podcast artwork

At one of America's oldest bookshops, there are just as many stories to be told outside the pages as in them. Join Brattle Book Shop proprietor Kenneth Gloss and co-host Jordan Rich as they share insightful and entertaining conversations and histories surrounding Boston's favorite spot for bibliophiles. Topics range from military autobiographies to regional cookbooks and everything in between. Updates every two weeks.

  Arts  Society & Culture
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Brattlecast #196 - One Magazine From Yesteryear

Dec 03 2024 15 mins  
Today we’re leafing through the August 1942 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal. Although it’s just one magazine, it contains a wealth of information about women’s lives in World War II-era America: from hot fashion trends to newly available manufacturing jobs. There are beautifully illustrated soap advertisements, fiction by Pearl Buck, and a column in which First Lady Eleanor R

Brattlecast #195 - Railroad Timetables

Nov 19 2024 12 mins  
All Aboard! It’s the episode you’ve been waiting for: vintage railroad timetables. Despite the potentially dry subject matter, it’s a surprisingly scenic ride. Dating back to the early 1900's, many of these schedules are illustrated with smaller-scale (and more affordable) versions of gorgeous travel posters—advertisements for the destinations themselves, but also for the r

Brattlecast #194 - Boston Book Fair 2024

Nov 05 2024 15 mins  
We’re so excited for the 46th annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, a great opportunity to rub elbows with book dealers—and enthusiasts—from all over the world. This year’s fair takes place at the Hynes Convention Center on the weekend of November 8–10. Admission is free on Saturday and Sunday—but we know a guy who can get you free passes for Friday night,

Brattlecast #193 - High School Yearbooks

Oct 22 2024 12 mins  
Called to look at a collection of materials on Boston-area schools, Ken came across a group of yearbooks, including—surprisingly—his own. While they’re not too monetarily valuable, these yearbooks offer a wealth of information about the changing fashions, hobbies, and ambitions of young people in New England, from the turn of the century to the 1970s (the hairstyles alone are

Brattlecast #192 - Profiles in Courage

Oct 08 2024 13 mins  
Today in the studio we have a copy of John F. Kennedy’s 'Profiles in Courage,' inscribed by the author to an interesting—but not especially well-known—figure from Boston’s history. We’ll use it as a jumping-off point into a discussion of signatures and inscriptions more generally: some are simply nice to have, others substantially increase the collectibility and value of

Brattlecast #191 - Doris Kearns Goodwin

Sep 24 2024 12 mins  
In today’s episode we’re talking about acclaimed author—and friend of the shop—Doris Kearns Goodwin. She’s known for insightful and engaging presidential biographies such Team of Rivals, The Bully Pulpit, and the Pulitzer prize-winning No Ordinary Time. Goodwin’s latest book, An Unfinished Love Story, weaves together memoir and historical analysis, exploring the 1960's

Brattlecast #190 - An Emerson Letter

Sep 10 2024 13 mins  
Today we’re talking about a charming 1835 letter—recently found in a New England attic and purchased by the shop—from Ralph Waldo Emerson to a girl named Lucia. In the letter, Emerson exhorts his young correspondent to listen in solitude to the voices of nature, to the “great old gray ocean” and the “withered leaves that chatter in the cold March wind.” These themes w

Brattlecast #189 - A Whitman Letter

Aug 27 2024 15 mins  
During the American Civil War, Walt Whitman left his bohemian life in New York City to volunteer at Union hospitals in Washington DC, spending time with wounded soldiers and distributing small gifts of fruit, paper, and money. To fund these efforts, the poet solicited charitable donations from his network of friends via letter, one of which we have in the studio with us today. Over

Brattlecast #188 - The Southern Workman

Aug 13 2024 16 mins  
Today we’re looking at an issue of The Southern Workman, a monthly journal published from 1812–1939 by Virginia’s Hampton Institute Press. Founded shortly after the Civil War as the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, the Hampton Institute trained Black and Indigenous students to become teachers and community leaders, as well as offering vocational skills that would e

Brattlecast #187 - Something from I. Newton

Jul 30 2024 15 mins  
In this episode we’re looking at a foundational text of modern math and science, Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. The volume with us today is a beautifully bound third edition, published in 1726 (a first edition, worth millions, would have probably stayed back at the shop, although Ken does describe an electric encounter with Newton’s own annot